SOME of Sefton’s favourite garden bird chicks had a good summer according to participants in the RSPB’s summer wildlife survey.

The Make Your Nature Count survey showed that almost a half of Merseyside gardens surveyed had baby blackbirds during June, an increase of a quarter on 2010.

Twenty per cent of gardens had robin chicks, an increase of a third on last year.

And young song thrushes were seen in five per cent of Merseyside gardens, an increase of almost a third.

People in every UK county took part in this year’s survey, with results coming in from Shetland to the Channel Islands. The survey ran from June 4-12 and over 50,000 gardens were involved.

Experts believe the high numbers of young blackbirds, robins and song thrushes could be because the weather conditions were right when they were both in the nest, and when they fledged.

Richard Bashford, RSPB Make Your Nature Count organiser, said: “Thanks to the tens of thousands of people that helped us collect information on summer wildlife, we’ve been able to see how well some of our baby birds fared this breeding season.

“It’s great to know that blackbird, robin and song thrush chicks are back up from last June, and it would suggest that the weather conditions were just right in that month. Although we suspect that they may have struggled in the drier weather earlier in the spring.”

Participants were asked to report bats for the first time this year.

More than one in five of those in Merseyside taking part said they see bats in their gardens at least monthly. The results also showed that bats are twice as likely in rural gardens as urban ones. Wildlife friendly gardens with plenty of shrubs and trees are more likely to attract bats.

Frogs were seen regularly in almost a third of Merseyside gardens, and toads in seven per cent.

The results show that if you have a pond you are three times more likely to have frogs, twice as likely to have toads and eight times more likely to have great crested newts.

For more information on attracting wildlife to your garden, visit www.rspb.org.uk/hfw.